Fringe

Next week, "Fringe" will finish its run with back-to-back episodes. That makes this the second to last week of the series (and third-to-last episode). We don't know what's going to happen, but we are bracing ourselves for a less-than-happy finale complete with a cliffhanger conclusion. To us, that feels right, that feels like the way the show should go out, and tonight's episode is going to setup whatever the finale may bring. Now is not the moment to tune out, the resistance needs us.

Past Events

Tonight, with back-to-back episodes, we're going to end our tale of Olivia Dunham, the Bishop boys, Astrid, Broyles, Nina, the Observers, and just about everyone else. To say that "Fringe" has changed a little since Olivia was engaged to John Scott and they were at that storage facility would be underselling it a tad. What "Fringe" has done, instead, is repeatedly reinvented itself ("Lost" style), giving us an incredible story of the strange, the weird, and the truly disturbing. It all ends tonight, and we are certainly rooting for Olivia and Peter to end up happily ever after (but we don't hold out hope).

People, we are scarily close to the end of "Fringe" for all time. And, when we say 'scarily close' we mean like Observers living in your house watching you every second of the day and night and installing one of those super terrifying air changer things in our attic. That close. This is episode 10 of the fifth season and there are but 13 episodes total that we'll get this year (TV year). After tonight we'll get an episode on January 11th and two on the 18th and that's it. You better watch tonight, and not just because the episode has a truly odd title, 'XB-6783746.' no, watch, or the Observers will get you.

Thirteen episodes. Just 13 episodes. That is all that we're getting from "Fringe" this season and, in fact, they are the last 13 we'll get (we're betting against one of those last minute miracle reprieves moving the show to another network). This final season of our beloved sci-fi show began last week and is going to continue this week. As happy as we are to get another episode of one of our favorite shows, it makes us that much sadder because it means that the entire thing will be coming to a close more quickly. There aren't that many episodes left, be sure to tune in tonight.

For years now we've been living on the fringe. We've been outcasts in our own society. We've been relegated to the margins. We've been forced to the edges. Well, okay, that really doesn't have anything to do with the series "Fringe," but we kind of thought you'd like to know where we were coming from. The science fiction series in question here is all about fringe science and general weirdness. It hasn't always been great, but it has (nearly) always been interesting. The final season opens tonight.

Every season "Fringe" seems to kind of reinvent itself. Oh, don't get us wrong, the characters remain the same and some of the overarching plots remain the same, but they tend to alter their scope on a relatively yearly basis. There is an alternate universe. There is a war between the universes. Peter Bishop has saved the universes but doesn't actually exist. We wonder what the finale of this fourth season will bring. Maybe the multiverse will collapse.

Did you watch that last episode of "Fringe" at the end of February (which was the last time there was a new episode)? Oh man, here we are, neither here nor there, and we're loving every minute of it. Peter and Olivia exploring the possibility of maybe pretending like she's the other Olivia, and then there was the Nina Sharp thing, plus the dude from "The Lord of the Rings" always has weird stuff going on, like that sandwich he was eating -- what was that, butter and rainbow sprinkles on white bread? Sure, rainbow sprinkles work better there than chocolate sprinkles, but we're not sure sprinkles are a good choice anyway. Marmite was clearly the way to go.

Tonight's episode is entitled 'The End of all Things' and is the winter finale for the series. You know that means that there is going to be some sort of ultra-major cliffhanger thing that is going to cause us to have something of a sleepless night as we contemplate what it might mean. As the mythology for "Fringe" has expanded, so has our love for the series and so we have to figure that after tonight's episode we are, quite likely, going to have to propose to the show, its stars, and its producers.

If we had to guess (and we know that you desperately want us to), we tend to think that this episode is going to have a pretty serious cliffhanger at the end of it. Initially, it was this episode which was supposed to be the fall finale, but due to baseball (at least we think it was baseball), everything got pushed back a week and this episode got moved off the fall finale date and onto the winter premiere one. We hope this is the episode where Peter and Olivia finally decide to really be together for all time. Enough hemming and hawing, they should just tie the knot (just like we think Walter and Astrid should).

We can't lie to you, we would never lie to you, we have been known to wear our 'Save Peter' shirt on Fridays this Fall. That poor guy has been through a whole lot thus far this season, we're not surprised that he's going to need some time off to rest, relax, and recuperate. This week's episode is the fall finale which means that Peter is going to get exactly that. We hope that he takes some time, thinks about what where he is, what he's been through, and maybe even pours himself a pretty stiff drink.

Oh man, last year's season finale of "Fringe," with its disturbing glimpse of a dystopian future packed a serious punch (as did the altered present). Where is the series going to head now? We like to imagine that there are some very imaginative, very smart, very off-centered minds working in a dark room somewhere to come up with the plot lines the show follows and that the longer they stay in the room (the longer the show runs), the more far out, more intricate, more wonderful their ideas become. We figure that by season 20 the show will just be completely insane.

It has been a wild, weird, and at times wonderful season on "Fringe." We're still trying to figure it all out (like why once Peter and Walter entered William Bell's office at Massive Dynamic inside Olivia's mind they went animated). We don't imagine that tonight's episode will provide anywhere near the number of answers as it will questions, but we're going to watch anyway. And maybe, just maybe, when the show returns for season four we'll get some of the answers we've been hoping for (but probably not).

Ah, Friday night sci-fi on FOX - it's where shows (good and bad) go to die. No, we're not saying that "Fringe" won't survive its move to Friday nights, but goodness knows that FOX has had oodles and oodles of problems getting programs to stick on Fridays. Some would argue that "Fringe" already has a sizable fanbase that will follow the show anywhere and so the move is a good one for the network and series. Others would argue that no matter what FOX does they'll never again have a sizable Friday night hit. We'll see what happens, but do be aware that the move to Fridays starts tonight.

So, you remember that guy who drove Olivia around 'over there' back in the excellent season premiere? Yes, Henry Higgins, and he's played by Andre Royo from "The Wire." Well, he's going to be back tonight and he's going to be helping out our 'over there' Olivia once more. Hopefully he'll be finding her some way to get back 'over here' so she can straighten out all the shenanigans that have been happening this season. Seriously people, the show is running on all cylinders now and you should definitely check it out, especially with Royo being on.

Our "Fringe" friends bailed on us for almost the entirety of February and every single day of March. Tonight, they return, and they do so with all-new tales of utter weirdness. There's still oh-so-much for us to figure out about this show, and we're excited for the opportunity to do so. Among the things we want to know - was it that Romulan guy, Nero, who forced Spock to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and then decide to spend time in an alternate universe, or does William Bell have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Romulans and Vulcan? We have to figure that it's all connected.

While the mysteries of The Pattern won't be solved tonight, Detective Dunham and the Bishop boys are going to be taking a breather after tonight's episode. This episode is the "winter finale" of the series, meaning that for about two months, there will be no new "Fringe" episodes coming our way. Will this be explained within the fiction of the show? Will the Bishops perhaps take that long-deserved Aruban vacation whilst Olivia Dunham explores the mysteries that the Great Pyramids have to offer? We sincerely doubt it, but with The Pattern, anything is possible.

Just who is this mysterious man (if he is a man) known as The Observer on "Fringe?" Perhaps there's more than one of him (if he is a him). All we're authorized to tell you at this point is that the whatever that is known as The Observer on "Fringe" is going to be examined a little more thoroughly tonight. We're hoping that includes the man's eating habits and dulled sense of taste, but we'll take any and all info that comes our way, and you should too as it's unlikely that asking nicely will persuade the producers to tell us more.

"Fringe" ended its first season with the introduction of William Bell, the founder of Massive Dynamic, and the mystery of how Olivia is standing with him on top of a still-standing World Trade Center building. Expect season two to address these questions.

The season finale of FOX's "Fringe" is titled "More Than One of Everything."

Of the episode, FOX says, "The sudden and unexpected attack on someone with close ties to Fringe Division, the return of bioterrorist David Robert Jones (guest star Jared Harris) and the inexplicable disappearance of Walter set the stage for a non-stop, nail-biting season finale of 'Fringe.' Questions will be answered, observations made, loyalties tested and truths and identities revealed."

One of those identities will reportedly be that of Massive Dynamic founder William Bell, who will be played by Leonard Nimoy.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated new show on any network this fall, "Fringe" hasn't necessarily brought in ratings to justify the hype. Still, FOX has given the show its best available spring slot, after "American Idol."

"Fringe" gets its first post-"Idol" airing on Jan. 20 and expect J.J. Abrams and company to deliver more fringe science, more traveling through time and space, more shady doings at Massive Dynamic and more breadcrumbs about the nature of The Pattern.